Heist stakes

Heist launch party w/Stewart Legere, Manny Dingo, Princess Edward and DJ Almond Breeze
Saturday, April 8 at 9pm
Mother’s Halifax, 5710 Young Street
Free

A new live art company is taking over Mother’s Pizza on Saturday night. “Let art take over” is the motto of Heist, the rebranded group formerly known as Angels & Heroes. Richie Wilcox and Aaron Collier are at the helm of the company and fresh off the heels of their Robert Merritt Award win for the sound design of The Princess Show, the Fringe hit and soon-to-be-touring multimedia anime-drag-inspired performance.

“Our mandate is to create, produce, and present innovative, genre-bending and queerly playful performances,” says Collier. “We’re trying to expand music towards theatre and theatre towards music.”

“It’s about breaking down labels, which is also a very queer thing,” says Wilcox.

The next show for Heist is New Waterford Boy: A Ceilidh, presented as part of Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts. It’s an old-fashioned kitchen party where Wilcox sings songs and tells stories of his childhood in Cape Breton. “It’s also taking a look at traditional histories honestly and from the perspective of growing up queer,” says Collier.

Wilcox and Collier are an exciting duo to have working in Halifax. Their productions meld many influences and are unusual, immersive and technically impressive – a flashy pop vibe with a queer twist and a local flare. Take Princess Edward, Collier’s alter-ego and heroine of The Princess Show, whose cultural relatives could be as much Anne of Green Gables as they are Madonna.

The Heist launch party runs from 9pm to midnight “so if you go to bed early you can get in, and if you go to bed late, you can get in,” says Collier. “And Saturday at midnight it’s my birthday,” Wilcox adds. The event is free and will feature performances from Stewart Legere, Manny Dingo, Princess Edward and DJ Almond Breeze.